JIHAD AS DISCOURSE: THE HOUTHI MOVEMENT'S OFFICIAL RHETORIC ON THE 2023–2024 RED SEA ATTACKS

Authors

• Moh. Iqbal Bulgini, Universitas AirlanggaFollow

Abstract

This study examines how Ansar Allah (the Houthi movement) constructs and legitimises a jihad discourse through official speeches and formal statements issued by military spokesperson Yahya Sarea and the movement's official platforms during the 2023–2024 Red Sea attacks. Employing Norman Fairclough's three-dimensional Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) framework—integrating textual analysis, discursive practice, and sociocultural context—the study analyses a purposive corpus of 45 verified institutional texts. Three dominant and mutually reinforcing discursive formations are identified: (1) the Humanitarian-Juridical Discourse, which reconstitutes armed attacks as legally and morally obligatory acts of protection; (2) the Anti-Hegemonic Resistance Discourse, which constructs the movement as a vanguard of transnational resistance against Western imperialism; and (3) the Eschatological Legitimation Discourse, which invokes Islamic prophetic tradition to render armed struggle as divinely sanctioned and historically inevitable. These formations operate as an integrated discursive architecture providing multiple radicalization entry pathways. The findings carry direct policy implications for counter-narrative strategy in Muslim-majority contexts, particularly Indonesia, where resonance of Houthi discourse has been documented.

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Ansar Allah Official Platform. (2024, January 12). Statement on U.S.-U.K. airstrikes. ansarollah.com.

Sarea, Y. (2023, November 19). Official military communiqué on Red Sea operations. Ansar Allah official platform. ansarollah.com.

Sarea, Y. (2024, February 8). Official military communiqué. ansarollah.com.

Sarea, Y. (2024, January 15). Mass rally address, Sanaa. Al-Masira Network official transcript. almasirah.net.

Recommended Citation

Bulgini, Moh. Iqbal (2026) "JIHAD AS DISCOURSE: THE HOUTHI MOVEMENT'S OFFICIAL RHETORIC ON THE 2023–2024 RED SEA ATTACKS," Journal of Terrorism Studies: Vol. 8: No. 1, Article 3.
DOI: 10.7454/jts.v8i1.10100
Available at: https://scholarhub.ui.ac.id/jts/vol8/iss1/3